Tag Archive: West Africa

Paipo

The paipo board is the most ancient of the Planing Totems. There are historic accounts of these boards being ridden prone and while kneeling from West Africa to Tahiti and of course Hawaii. The paipo’s main function was as a small board to swim and bodysurf with. In Hawaii the paipo was the first board kids rode when they began to surf. In Waikiki during the classic beach boy era from the 1920s through the 1960s paipo riding blossomed on plywood boards made from the surplus scrap wood of Honolulu’s 20th century construction boom. The Kuhio beach groin, known locally as “The Wall” became the epicenter of the paipo scene in the 1950s and 60s. Standing on a paipo was the considered the ultimate at the Wall, and Hawaiian surfers like Valentine Ching mastered the art of stand-up paipo in the fifties. From the Waikiki paipo school emerged some of the most influential surfers of the 20th century: Rabbit Kekai, Wally Froiseth, Donald Takayama, David Nuuhiwa, Reno Abellira, Eddie and Clyde Aikau, Jeff Ching, Buttons Kaluhiokalani, Larry Bertlemann, and many other Hawaiian surfers cut their teeth on paipo boards. This familiarity with short planing boards helped these surfers played a major role in the development of the surf/skate style that became prevalent in the 1970s.